The "perpetual issue" of COVID-19 will again have its own session this year, entitled "COVID-19: The challenge remains". Current challenges include the ongoing, astounding evolution of perpetually new virus variants and the resulting necessity for adapting diagnostics, therapy and the development of vaccines accordingly. Therefore, the first presentations will focus on detecting new virus variants, on immune response assays using antibodies and t-cell tests, and on approaches to developing a universal COVID-19 vaccine. As another challenge both for individuals and for society as a whole, long-COVID syndrome is also slowly beginning to gain attention. To better understand and treat this slowly spreading "disease after the disease" which affects millions of people worldwide – including those who had a mild course of acute illness – and which can cause long-lasting physical and psychological disability, a deeper understanding of the pathophysiology, new molecular diagnostic tests and specialized treatment centers for affected patients are necessary. Prof. Dr. Uta Behrends of the Chronisches Fatigue Centrum für junge Menschen (MCFC), the center for chronic fatigue for young people at the Technical University of Munich, already has many years of experience with fatigue syndromes following various viral diseases. She will report on her work with an interdisciplinary team of specialists caring for children and adolescents with long COVID and ME/CFS.

Day 3: Rising stars: Emerging biomarkers in laboratory medicine


The two last days of the forum will take a look at the future of laboratory medicine and the life sciences. On November 16, Dr. Verena Haselmann from the University Hospital Mannheim and a team of young, dedicated scientists will shine a light on the "rising stars" among the new biomarkers on the scientific stage. What is new and which methods are on the way to becoming standard care – both of these questions will be the focus of lectures and discussions.

The morning will be dedicated to technologies the potential of which for medical diagnostics and therapy is still under evaluation. This includes new methods of sequencing genomes and detecting complex epigenomic changes. Another topic is the application of these methods on single cells (single-cell omics) and the examination of blood samples by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); a method which so far has only been routinely used for diagnostic imaging. All these methods have in common that their analysis produces immense volumes of data. Their evaluation poses the real challenge here. During the morning session, Prof. Dr. Jonathan Schmid-Burgk of the Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology of the University Hospital Bonn will provide an introduction to high-throughput sequencing and novel applications in his lecture „Next-generation sequencing – what´s new?“. There will also be a discussion on the benefits of functional genetic mapping of hotspot genes.

Business Affairs Homepage